- Portland Police Bureau
- Celine Geday
Update: Geday was not charged with any crimes, since the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office says it could not prove she struck the cyclist on purpose.
Original post: Typically when a driver hits a cyclist on Portland roads, it’s treated like no big deal. If someone on a bike isn’t injured enough to merit a hospital visit, an at-fault driver doesn’t even face a ticket (assuming they’re not drunk and don’t flee the scene).
Today, though, things went the opposite direction for an allegedly thoughtless, dangerous, and enraged motorist on the south edge of downtown.
Cops say 29-year-old Celine Julia Geday sought vengeance on a complaining cyclist by swerving to topple him from his bike near SW Jackson and Broadway. The cyclist, 47-year-old Brian Lee Groce, wasn’t severely injured, but Geday faces potential years of prison time anyway. That’s because cops are recommending she be charged with second-degree assault, a Measure 11 crime that carries a hefty minimum sentence in many cases.
It’s a very rare step for Portland police. Bureau spokesman Pete Simpson can’t remember another time a driver’s been charged with assault for hitting a cyclist.
“Typically they’re not intentional,” Simpson says. “They’re just either bad decisions by turning in front of somebody, or, in the case of drunk driving, it’s reckless driving. This time, witness statements led officers to believe it was an intentional act.”
From the press release Simpson sent out:
Groce was suffering from non-traumatic injuries and told officers that he had been cut off in traffic by a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta (driven by 29-year-old Celine Julia Geday) and he’d ridden up to her and told her that she’d almost hit him and she replied by honking her horn.
Groce explained to police that they were both traveling East on Jackson and stopped at the red light at Broadway and he repeated to her that she’d almost hit him. Groce told police that the light turned green and they both started to cross Broadway when the driver swerved left, knocked him off the bike, then stopped her car.
Based on Groce’s account of events, and independent witness statements, Assault detectives were consulted rather than Traffic investigators as the information indicated that the crash was an intentional act.
It’s doubtful it will come to this, but if Geday were convicted of second-degree assault, she’d probably face a sentence of 5 years and 10 months under Measure 11’s mandatory minimums. In 1997, lawmakers passed a loophole to that mandate, allowing for more-lenient punishment if:
(A) That the victim was not physically injured by means of a deadly weapon;
(B) That the victim did not suffer a significant physical injury; and
(C) That the defendant does not have a previous conviction for a crime listed in subsection (4) of this section.
I’m no judge, but: 2003 Volkswagen Jetta = deadly weapon.
While I agree she should be prosecuted, labeling a car a ‘deadly weapon’ goes beyong sensible reasoning. Maybe it’s merely semantics, but still…
What part of “anything you say can, and will be used against you” do people fail to understand?
A deadly weapon is one which can inflict mortal or great bodily harm. Car: made of steel and capable of great speed. Human: soft and slow. I’d say the definition is well-met, an assessment supported by countless judges.
But then a plane, train, forklift, any sort of machinery– even a bicycle (!) can be construed to be a “weapon”.
We humans are pretty damn frail, really.
Intent.
GEDAY, MATE
They will find this to be self defense. On one side we have a male that has twice confronted a driver and probably wasn’t civil about it. On the other side we have a woman that was probably scared. Note that she stopped once the man was incapacitated instead of driving away.
And wouldn’t you know, Groce has been arrested twice in recent years, both on assault-related charges.
@Ice Prez, yeah that is a factor. I don’t think it justifies what she did, but we were not there and don’t know how he approached her….its possible she felt physically threatened and reacted. There is a rumor she will not be charged
She has been released and will not be charged according to KATU
DIRK, while her actions could have been more measured, certainly, I think you still owe the girl an apology for plastering her mudshot – HUGELY – on your blog while not reporting all the facts.
You should have dug deeper into this story before painting anyone as evil.
Sorry dude….
Dirk, you ride a fixie by chance?
Hmmm… I know him.
He has always been nothing but kind to me and my wife too.
However, that don’t change the fact the girl shouldn’t have her face posted up like a FBI Top Ten Wanted List.
I now read he says she was texting…..
That is unforgivable if true.
It would be nice to get an update and the reasoning behind the decision not to press charges.
Stories are reported as facts are gathered. If news outlets waited to report until all the facts were in, daily newspapers would go out of business in a month.
So it’s annoying to constantly have readers who freak out at initial reports with limited information. If the information were incorrect, it’d be different. Stop trying to manage the press from afar.
^^guspacho made a reasonable request and this is the freaking Mercury for gods sake! So, what do you do on the staff?
Too bad Groce’s mugshots weren’t added to the story as well.
I asked for an update, not to hold off on reporting anything until all the facts are in. Reading comprehension, people.
You know, it’s bad enough when the Oregonian runs a story about a driver deliberately attempting to smash a cyclist with their car and the grubby ultraconservative worms that infest their comments sections take the driver’s side. I never imagined that all the same worms lived under the Mercury’s rock as well.